Stone Bridge in Skopje

Stone Bridge in Skopje

In Skopje city center, on the river Vardar, exists the monumental Stone Bridge, which today connects the old and new part of the City.

According to Turkish sources, the bridge was built in the second half of the fifteenth century, during the rule of Sultan Mehmed II. However, there is another belief that the bridge is older, built in the first half of the fifteenth century during Sultan Murat II (1421-1455).

The latter is supported by the fact that on the east side of the bridge there was a panel on which was inscribed the date of the building of the bridge. In addition to this belief, is also the inscription in Isa Bey Mosque, where it is written that the stone bridge was built during the rule of Sultan Murat II.

The Stone Bridge in Skopje Macedonia is one of the greatest monuments of this kind. Built from well-formed stone blocks, while his massive construction relies on power poles interconnected with semicircular arches.

Vardar Stone Bridge had suffered major alterations: during the time of Suleiman the magnificent 1596-7, in the devastating floods in Skopje, in 1905 when the concrete paths were built, when the bridge was extended in 1937 and when it was built by the new approach of the city.

Although it has been repaired several times, stone bridge, basically, preserved the original appearance.

The Pelince Memorial Museum was developed by the project of architect Georgi Konstantinov (Ѓорѓи Константинов) and the monumental mosaic facade is the work of the Macedonian contemporary artists Rubens Korubin (Рубенс Корубин) and Ilija Penushliski (Илија Пенушлиски).